Hola Barcelona!

Last weekend, the boy and I flew to Barcelona and spent a lovely few days exploring, eating, and relaxing. I'd never visited the city before but it had been top of my list for a good few years - the art, culture and food had always tickled my fancy and it's pretty much around the corner from England so seemed like a plausible destination for my poor graduate self.

We landed on Friday and were greeted by lovely gloomy grey skies and lashings of rain. I won't dwell too much on the weather - I think we've all done enough of that already over the last few months(!) - but it was grim. Our guide book had just one page devoted to 'What to do if rains', because bad weather apparently only hits Barcelona roughly 50 days out of the entire year. And yes - we enjoyed 4 of those. 

So, moving on to the good stuff! We stayed in a beautiful hotel called Hotel Grums, which is situated in the west of the city and is only about a 5-10 minute walk away from the famous, bustling street La Rambla. I highly recommend it if you're after somewhere modern and stylish, yet affordable and welcoming.

Since it rained a lot we made good use of the Metro (such an easy system to get to grips with) and the 10-trip ticket - a definite bargain if you're not one for walking or just like to get to places quickly! For the rest of the time, strolling on foot suited us just fine. In fact, I'm really glad we did so much of this because we saw a lot of beautiful buildings and quirky residential areas away from the main tourist routes that we would never have found otherwise. 

Dinners pretty much consisted completely of tapas. You have to do it, right? 

This was an amazing little restaurant we found called Mam I Teca, which had only 4 tables and 1 waitress, but it served the most delicious food. Perfect for a quiet, romantic meal. 

I'll let the pictures do the talking for everything else:

La Sagrada Familia - or the 'Gaudi Cathedral'

Review || Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

I finally managed to pick up this much-raved-about product a few weeks ago (thank you Boots and your lovely 3-for-2 offers!) and think I'm just about ready to share my thoughts on it.

This top coat is supposed to be THE best one out there, and I have to admit it is pretty good. I apply a thick layer on top of my nail polish after it's had a few minutes to dry on it's own and the result is a beautifully glossy finish. I also think it makes my nail varnish last a lot longer, and I've rarely seen chips or peeling within the first 2-3 days of wear.

Having said that, I'm afraid that I've actually found the fast drying quality to be a bit hit and miss! The first time I used it, it was incredible - within about a minute I could touch my nails (with a good amount of pressure) and there was absolutely no tackiness. But, the 2nd and 3rd times were completely different. I did eventually get the hard, non-tacky result achieved before, but it took soo much longer. And, in the meantime I managed to make dents in the varnish from all of the tapping to see if it had dried! I did use different brands of nail polish each time (Essie for the first, Rimmel for the 2nd and No. 7 for the 3rd) so perhaps this is where the issue lies. In my opinion though, such a celebrated product should perform effectively every time. 

The jury is still out on this one. I'll keep using it because I love the shiny finish and the fact it keeps my varnish looking good for longer, but I'm not sure if I'll be re-purchasing when it's all gone...

A Little Trip to Audley End House

Last week, I visited Audley End House in Saffron Walden, Essex for a wander round. This early 17th century property is one of England's grandest stately homes and is currently under the stewardship of English Heritage. 

Inside, the house is beautifully finished with wonderful paintings, original furniture, and some rather quirky stuffed animals. Outside, the Capability Brown parkland stretches far and wide and is just as impressive as the grand interiors. It's recently re-opened for the Spring/Summer season and is a great day out - with some very yummy cakes to be had in the cafe - if you're in the area or are up for a road trip! Here are some of the snaps I managed to get on my way in.

Review || Davina Intense DVD

If you've read my previous post on Davina McCall's fitness DVDs you'll know I'm a HUGE fan. They're great for people of all abilities since there's always both an 'easy' and 'harder' technique to follow, they're varied, and (I think anyway) fun! 

I thought it might be useful for those of you who are interested in this type of exercise if I gave my opinions on some of the best DVDs in this series. As I'm in no way a fitness or health expert, these thoughts are purely based on my own experiences and the results I've seen for my own body.

First up is the most recent of the bunch, Davina Intense:

I think this is a great choice for those of us who find it difficult to fit exercise in to their daily routine. It focuses on the principle of High Intensity Training, which means you work out for a shorter amount of time but at a much higher intensity than normal. This type of training is all about getting your heart rate up really high during short bursts of exercise in order to burn lots of fat (yippeee!). 

So, this DVD is split into 3 workout sections, not including the warm up and cool down (which you MUST do every time you work out to avoid injury) - Intense Cardio Box, Intense Toning and Intense Abs. Each lasts no longer than 20-25 minutes, so is great for fitting in to a busy schedule. To get the most out of the sections you'll only need a small amount of floor space and a couple of weights (but bottles of water or tins of food do the job just as well). 

The first two sections work very similarly. They focus on 2-3 minutes of high intensity exercises, such as fast running on the spot, squats, star jumps, and lunges, split up with 2 minute 'rest' periods. This allows you to work out as hard as you can in the 2-3 minutes to get your heart rate up really high and then to bring it back down again to give you energy for the next burst. The final, Abs, section also works on this principle but mixes standing exercises with ones on the floor - definitely the least intense of the 3 sections, but still gets a good sweat on! 

I've had this DVD since Christmas and it's slowly becoming my favourite. I always feel like I've had a brilliant workout every time and I've noticed a real difference in my fitness levels and toned-ness! 

Artwork of the Week #6

Tony Cragg

Review || L'Oreal Waterproof Volume Million Lashes Mascara

Next up in the reviews from my recent Boots haul is this mascara from L'Oreal. I've owned the original Volume Millions mascara before and really loved it - it really did add a lot of noticeable volume, held a good curl and lasted a looong time before drying out. I needed a new waterproof mascara after my beloved waterproof L'Oreal Telescopic mascara (a love initiated by the wonderful Anna of Vivianna Does Makeup) finally ran out and thought I'd give the Volume Millions a go since I got on so well with the original. 

Before

After

Overall, I do like this mascara. As you can see, it gives a really lovely effect and definitely helps with volume and definition. My only gripe with it, is that I don't think the waterproof-ness (new word?) is as good as the Telescopic. I got rained on a bit yesterday (we're talking mildly wet weather here, not cats and dogs territory) but after only about 5 minutes out in it, I got inside and the mascara had rubbed off and given me lovely black dots under my eyes. Not a good look. 

As a result of this, I don't think I'll be relying too heavily on this for rainy days, but I'll definitely be reaching for this when I'm feeling in the mood for volume and a bit of drama!

Here I've just done a quick comparison between the L'Oreal mascara (on your right) and the Max Factor Clump Defy mascara (on your left), which I bought at the same time (you can find my review for that here). To me, it looks like the L'Oreal gives much more volume and lift than the Max Factor.  If you like a less dramatic look or don't enjoy the more laborious task of taking waterproof mascara off every night, the Max Factor is definitely worth a look! 

Have you tried either of these mascaras? Which do you prefer?

Review || Revlon Lip Butter in Juicy Papaya

Like many of you out there I LOVE the Revlon Lip Butters - they just suit me down to a tea. I've never really been one for lipsticks and definitely not for lipglosses (too many hair-streaking-it-across-my-face incidences), but when the lip butters came to town and were hyped up left right and centre I thought I'd give lip products another go. And, over the last year or so, I think these guys and I have developed a pretty happy relationship. 

This colour is the latest addition to my collection and is the *relatively* newly released Juicy Papaya.

I won't go on about the formulation or longevity etc etc because that's all been said a million times before on blogs and videos. I thought it might be useful to show you some swatches though, of the colour and buildability of this particular shade. Above, from left to right I've swatched one, two and three layers. As you can see, it is one of the more sheer colours from the collection, but does build up to a really nice, pigmented corally-pink. I can't wait to wear this more often now that the weather is picking up!